no.  Ic 


SKETCH  OF  BISHOP  ATTICUS 
G.  HAYGOOD 


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THE  TRUSTEES  OF  THE  JOHN  F.  SLATER  FUND 
Occasional  Papers,  No.   16 


SKETCH 


OF 


BISHOP  ATTICUS  G.  HAYGOOD 


BY 


Rev.  G.  B.  Winton,  D.  D. 


1915 


BEIL  COMPANY,  INC.,  PBINTCHS,  LYNCMOUBn, 


.16  s 


SKETCH 


OF 


BISHOP  ATTICUS  G.  HAYGOOD 


BY 


Rev.  G.  B.  Winton,  D.  D. 


1915 


NOTE 

Dr.  Haygood  was  elected  General  Agent  of  the  John  F. 
Slater  Fund  at  a  meeting  of  the  Trustees  held  on  October  5, 
1882,  the  year  in  which  the  Fund  was  established.  He  con- 
tinued to  serve  in  this  capacity  until  he  accepted  the  office  of 
Bishop  in  1890.  At  the  fourteenth  meeting  of  the  Board  held 
October  29,  1890,  his  resignation  was  accepted,  and  Dr. 
J.  L.  M.  Curry  was  elected  to  fill  the  position.  Dr.  Haygood 
was  not  only  a  great  preacher  and  a  wise  administrator,  he  was 
also  a  great  and  wise  statesman.  The  Trustees  of  the  John  F. 
Slater  Fund  were  most  fortunate  in  being  able  to  secure  the 
services  of  such  a  man  in  the  beginning  of  their  important 
work.*  It  seems  fitting  that  among  the  occasional  papers  pub- 
lished by  the  Board  there  should  appear  a  sketch  of  Dr.  Hay- 
good's  life,  with  brief  extracts  from  his  speeches  and  writings. 
As  time  goes  on,  his  broad  vision,  his  liberal  spirit,  his  clear 
thought,  his  beneficent  influence,  will  more  and  more  be  under- 
stood and  realized. 

James  H.  Dillard. 


*At  the  time  of  Dr.  Haygood's  election  the  Board  of  Trustees  con- 
sisted of  the  following  members :  R.  B.  Hayes,  President ;  Morrison  R. 
Waite,  Vice-President ;  Daniel  C.  Oilman,  Secretary ;  Morris  K.  Jesup, 
Treasurer ;  Phillips  Brooks,  of  Massachusetts ;  William  E.  Dodge  and 
John  A.  Stewart,  of  New  York;  Alfred  H.  Colquitt,  of  Georgia;  James 
P.  Boyce,  of  Kentucky,  and  William  A.  Slater,  of  Connecticut. 


A  LIFE  SKETCH  OF  BISHOP  A.  G.  HAYGOOD* 

Atticiis  Greene  Haygood  was  born  at  Watkinsville,  Georgia, 
November  19,  1839,  and  fell  asleep  at  his  home  in  Oxford, 
Georgia,  January  19,  1896.  Into  the  fifty-six  years  of  his  life 
he  crowded  work  enough  to  have  engaged  a  strong  man  for 
more  than  threescore  and  ten  years.  He  might  have  lived 
longer  if  he  had  toiled  less  intensely.  In  the  active  and  busy 
years  of  his  life  it  was  not  uncommon  for  him  to  omit  entirely 
to  retire  at  night  for  sleep,  working  the  night  through,  except 
for  a  brief  rest  on  a  couch  or  in  a  reclining  chair. 

His  people  were  of  Methodist  stock,  and  at  the  age  of  fifteen 
he  became  a  member  of  that  church.  Even  in  his  youth  were 
manifested  the  marked  traits  of  generosity,  will  powder,  and 
devotion  to  the  church  which  characterized  him  as  a  man. 
When  it  was  proposed  to  erect  a  larger  and  more  commodious 
house  of  worship  for  the  congregation  in  Atlanta  of  which  he 
was  a  member,  he  subscribed,  though  a  mere  boy,  the  sum  of 
twenty-five  dollars.  He  then  hired  himself  to  the  contractor 
as  a  hod-carrier  to  pay  the  subscription.  With  reference  to 
this  it  has  been  well  said,  "The  young  shoulders  of  the  lad, 
which  thus  early  bowed  under  the  burdens  of  his  church,  were 
never  thereafter  free." 

In  1856  he  matriculated  as  a  Sophomore  in  Emory  College, 
at  Oxford,  Georgia,  and  was  graduated  with  distinction  in  the 
Class  of  1859.  He  was  associated  in  college  with  a  number  of 
men  who,  with  him,  afterward  became  influential  in  the  affairs 
of  his  church. 

He  was  admitted  into  the  Georgia  Conference  of  the  Metho- 
dist Episcopal  Church,  South,  in  the  autumn  of  the  year  he  left 
college  (1859),  and  at  the  age  of  twenty  years.  He  at  once 
took  high  rank  in  the  conference,  and  from  year  to  year  had 
experience  of  work  in  circuits,  stations,  and  districts.  During 
the  war  he  was  for  a  time  a  chaplain  in  the  Army  of  Virginia. 
In  later  years,  at  Chautauqua  and  elsewhere,  he  was  often 
called  upon  for  addresses  to  the  veterans,  alike  of  the  North 
and  of  the  South. 


*Adapted  from  the  Journal  of  the  General  Conference  of  the  Metho- 
dist Episcopal  Church,  South,  for  the  year  1898. 


4  Sketch  of  Bishop  Atticus  G.  Haygood 

The  Conference  to  which  he  belonged  was  divided,  in  1866, 
into  the  North  Georgia  and  the  South  Georgia  conferences,  his 
membership  remaining  in  the  North  Georgia.  That  Confer- 
ence made  him  one  of  its  representatives  in  the  General  Con- 
ference of  the  church,  which  met  in  1870.  Though  less  than 
thirty-one  years  of  age  at  the  time,  he  had  already  impressed 
and  w'idely  influenced  the  church  by  his  preaching  and  by  con- 
tributions to  the  periodicals,  especially  on  the  subject  of  Sun- 
day-schools and  religious  education.  That  General  Conference 
created  the  office  of  Secretary  of  Sunday-schools  and  elected 
A.  G.  Haygood  to  it.  To  him,  by  this  election,  was  committed 
the  entire  department  of  Sunday-school  literature,  and  his 
editing  of  that  literature  marks  an  era  in  the  history  of 
Sunday-school  work  in  his  church.  When  he  began  his  work 
there  was  a  single  periodical,  The  Sunday-School  Visitor. 
There  were  no  uniform  lesson  helps,  no  uniform  lessons. 
When,  after  five  years,  he  gave  up  his  position,  he  had  added 
two  periodicals.  The  Sunday-School  Magazine  and  Our  Little 
People,  and  had  greatly  increased  the  circulation  of  The 
Visitor.  During  his  editorship  he  laid  out  his  own  scheme  of 
uniform  lessons,  and  expounded  those  lessons  in  The  Magazine 
in  "Illustrative  Readings,"  "Notes,"  and  "Questions"  with 
exceptional  brilliance  and  power.  The  periodicals  edited  by 
him  had  a  wide  and  growing  circulation,  and  gave  much  satis- 
faction throughout  the  denomination. 

During  this  same  period  he  edited  a  number  of  excellent 
books  and  Sunday-school  libraries.  He  selected,  not  merely 
colorless  stories,  but  bright,  strong  biographies  and  histories 
adapted  to  the  taste  and  capacity  of  young  readers.  In  associa- 
tion with  his  friend,  Professor  R.  M.  Mcintosh,  he  brought 
out  several  acceptable  and  widely  used  song  books  for  the 
worship  in  the  Sunday-school. 

In  the  autumn  of  1874  he  w^as  obliged,  by  the  shattered 
health  of  Mrs.  Haygood,  to  remove  his  family  to  Oxford, 
Georgia,  the  home  of  her  girlhood.  After  continuing  his 
editorial  work  from  this  point  for  nearly  a  year,  he  gave  it 
up  in  September  of  1875.  The  place  of  publication  was  Nash- 
ville, Tennessee,  and  the  distance  was  too  great  for  satis- 
factory work. 


Sketch  of  Bishop  Atticus  G.  Haygood  5 

In  December  of  that  same  year  he  was  elected  president  of 
his  alma  mater,  Emory  College.  In  this  position  he  served 
nine  years,  and  his  work  as  an  educator  and  executive  sur- 
passed even  his  success  as  an  editor.  When  he  took  charge  of 
the  institution  its  patronage  was  small,  its  insufficient  buildings 
and  grounds  were  encumbered  with  debt,  and  its  endowment 
was  less  than  $15,000.  When  he  laid  down  his  work  there 
the  halls  of  the  college  were  overflowing  with  students,  the 
bulk  of  the  debts  were  paid,  its  buildings  had  been  increased 
by  a  central  structure  costing  $50,000,  and  its  endowment  had 
risen  to  $100,000.  And  all  this  despite  the  fact  that  the  years 
from  1875  to  1884  were  trying  years  financially. 

From  1878  to  1882,  while  president  of  Emory  College,  he 
edited  the  Wesleyan  Christian  Advocate.  Meantime  he  wrote 
two  of  his  best-known  books,  "Our  Children"  and  "Our 
Brother  in  Black."  The  positions  taken  in  the  latter  seemed 
to  some  of  his  fellow-citizens  in  the  South  open  to  question 
and  even  to  criticism,  but  he  stood  his  ground  stoutly.  The 
book  is  now  out  of  print,  but  it  deserves  to  be  commemorated 
as  a  pioneer  influence  in  the  developing  of  the  modern  attitude, 
now  general  in  the  South,  with  reference  to  the  training  and 
welfare  of  the  Negro. 

In  the  year  1882  the  General  Conference  of  his  church,  in 
session  at  Nashville,  Tennessee,  elected  Dr.  Haygood  to  the 
office  of  bishop.  He  felt  himself  impelled  to  decline  the 
position,  and  on  the  following  day,  May  1 7,  gave  to  the  Con- 
ference his  reasons  in  characteristically  frank  and  simple 
words.  He  wrote:  "I  am  deeply  moved  by  your  action  of 
yesterday  in  electing  me  a  bishop  of  our  beloved  church. 
Though  I  might  fear  the  responsibilities  of  the  office,  I  do  not 
shrink  from  the  labors.  Yet  with  a  clear  conviction  and  a 
deep  sense  of  my  duty,  I  respectfully  decline  to  accept  the 
position  to  which  you  have  called  me.  I  can  not  with  a  good 
conscience  lay  down  the  work  which  I  now  have  in  hand."  He 
felt  bound  to  the  college  until  difficulties  afifecting  its  best 
success,  if  not  its  very  existence,  were  removed.  He  did  not 
quit  its  service  until  the  results  upon  which  he  had  set  his  heart 
were  accomplished. 


6  Sketch  of  Bishop  Atticus  G.  Haygood 

In  the  same  year,  1882.  by  the  munificence  of  Mr.  John  F. 
Slater,  of  Norwich,  Connecticut,  the  fund  now  known  as  "The 
John  F.  Slater  Fund"  was  created.  The  agency  of  that  great 
interest  was  offered  to  Dr.  Haygood.  At  first  he  declined  it, 
and  suggested  the  name  of  another  minister  of  his  church  for 
the  place.  At  the  instance  of  Mr.  Slater,  the  Trustees  of  the 
Fund  continued,  however,  to  urge  him  to  accept.  Friends  in 
whom  he  had  confidence  joined  in  the  appeal,  and  he  finally 
agreed  to  take  the  agency. 

The  General  Conference  of  his  church,  which  met  at  St. 
Louis  in  the  year  1890,  again  called  him  to  the  ofifice  of  bishop. 
This  time  he  decided  to  accept  ordination,  and  entered  upon 
the  responsibilities  and  labors  of  the  position.  As  soon  as 
proper  arrangements  could  be  made  he  resigned  the  agency  of 
the  Slater  Fund,  and  for  the  rest  of  his  life  gave  his  undivided 
attention  to  the  service  of  his  church.  That  service,  as  one  of 
its  chief  pastors,  lasted  less  than  six  years,  for  at  what  for 
many  is  the  mere  meridian  of  life  he  laid  down  his  pen  and 
his  voice  was  hushed. 

During  the  years  of  his  Episcopal  service,  as  for  a  long  time 
previously.  Bishop  Haygood  w^as  much  in  demand  for  public 
addresses.  He  lived  for  a  time  at  Los  Angeles,  California. 
He  had  traveled  widely  during  the  years  of  his  work  for  the 
Slater  Fund.  His  ability  as  a  speaker  thus  became  generally 
known.  In  the  North  he  was  recognized  as  a  man  of  broad 
sympathies,  and  on  more  than  one  platform  cooperated  with 
his  distinguished  fellow-Georgian,  the  Hon.  Henry  W.  Grady, 
in  healing  the  breach  between  North  and  South.  His  advocacy 
of  the  welfare  of  the  Negro  made  him  many  friends  in  the 
North,  and  he  was  given  wide  opportunity  for  this  advocacy, 
both  with  voice  and  pen. 

During  his  later  years,  as  had  indeed  long  been  his  custom, 
he  continued  to  "toil  terribly."  His  pen  never  rested,  and  he 
did  not  spare  himself  in  travel,  in  speaking,  and  study. 
Several  additional  volumes  from  his  pen  appeared,  most  of 
them  made  up  of  addresses  which  he  had  delivered  or  of 
studies  in  which  he  had  engaged  as  teacher  and  preacher.  The 
principal  of  these,  in  addition  to  those  already  mentioned,  are 
"Sermons  and  Addresses,"  "Pleas  for  Progress,"  "The  Man 


Sketch  of  Bishop  Atticus  G.  Haygood  7 

of  Galilee,"  "Jack-Knife  and  Brambles,"  "The  Monk  and  the 
Prince."  Of  these,  doubtless  the  ablest  is  "The  Man  of 
Galilee,"  though  his  collected  addresses  exhibit  single  dis- 
courses which  are  the  equal  of  any  of  his  work  elsewhere. 
Many  of  them  are  extemporaneous  utterances  taken  in  short- 
hand and  only  slightly  revised,  but  even  these  show  that 
lucidity  of  thought,  that  simplicity  of  utterance  and  breadth 
of  sympathy  which  marked  his  best  work. 

Herewith  are  given  a  few  extracts,  that  the  readers  of  this 
sketch  may  test  for  themselves  the  charm  and  the  power  of 
one  of  the  South's  great  leaders. 


Sketch  of  Bishop  Atticus  G.  Haygood 


THANKSGIVING  IN  1880 

(From  a  Sermon  before  the  Faculty  and  Students  of 
Emory  College) 

"And  first,  we  of  the  South  have  great  reason  to  be  thankful 
to  God  that  we  are  in  all  respects  so  well  off,  and  that,  too,  so 
soon  after  so  great  a  war,  so  complete  an  upturning  of  our 
institutions,  so  entire  an  overthrow  of  our  industries,  so  abso- 
lute a  defeat  of  our  most  cherished  plans.  Recall  briefly  the 
last  twenty  years.  Think  of  what  we  were  in  1860  and  in 
1865;  then  look  about  you  and  see  what  we  are  in  1880. 
What  was  thought  by  our  people  after  Appomattox  and  April, 
1865,  as  to  the  prospect  before  us?  Some  of  you  can  recall 
the  forebodings  of  that  time  as  to  the  return  of  business  pros- 
perity, the  restoration  and  preservation  of  civil  and  social 
order  among  ourselves,  and  the  restoration  of  our  relations  to 
the  Union. 

''You  know  how  many  of  our  best  and  bravest  left  our  sec- 
tion forever  in  sheer  despair.  Behold  now  what  wonders  have 
been  wrought  in  fifteen  years ! 

"Firstly,  considering  where  and  what  we  were  fifteen  years 
ago,  considering  the  financial  convulsions  and  panics  that  have 
swept  over  our  country  during  that  time — I  might  say.  that 
have  disturbed  the  civilized  world — our  industrial  and  financial 
condition  to-day  is  marvelously  good.  It  is  not  true,  as  certain 
croakers  and  'Bourbons,'  floated  from  their  moorings  by  the 
rising  tides  of  new  and  better  ideas,  are  so  fond  of  saying, 
that  the  South  is  getting  poorer  every  day.  These  croakings 
are  not  only  unseemly,  they  are  false  in  their  statements  as 
they  are  ungrateful  in  their  sentiment.  A  right  study  of  our 
tax  returns  will  show  that  there  is  life  and  progress  in  the 
South.  But  statistical  tables  are  not  the  only  witnesses  in  such 
a  case.  Let  people  use  their  own  eyes.  Here  is  this  one  fact — 
the  cotton  crop,  as  an  exponent  of  the  power  of  our  industrial 
system.  In  1879  we  made  nearly  five  million  bales;  in  1880 
it  is  believed  that  we  will  make  nearly  six  million  bales.  We 
never  made  so  much  under  the  old  system.  It  is  nonsense  to 
talk  of  a  country  as  ruined  that  can  do  such  things.    There  are 


Sketch  of  Bishop  Atticus  G.  Haygood  9 

more  people  at  work  in  the  South  to-day  than  were  ever  at 
work  before,  and  they  are  raising  not  only  more  cotton  but 
more  of  everything  else.  And  no  wonder,  for  the  farming  of 
to-day  is  better  than  the  farming  of  the  old  days,  and  in  two 
grand  particulars :  First,  better  culture ;  second,  the  ever- 
increasing  tendency  to  break  up  the  great  plantations  into  small 
farms.  Our  present  system  is  more  than  restoring  what  the 
old  system  destroyed. 

"The  great  body  of  our  people  not  only  make  more  than  they 
did  before  the  war  but  they  make  a  better  use  of  it — they  get 
unspeakably  more  comfort  out  of  it.  I  am  willing  to  make  the 
comparison  on  any  line  of  things  that  you  may  suggest,  for  I 
know  both  periods.  Remember  that  I  am  speaking  of  the  great 
mass  of  the  people,  and  not  of  the  few  great  slaveholders,  some 
of  whom  lived  like  princes ;  not  forgetting,  meantime,  that  the 
majority  of  our  people  never  owned  slaves  at  all. 

"For  one  illustration  take,  if  you  please,  the  home  life  of 
our  people.  There  is  ten  times  the  comfort  there  was  twenty 
years  ago.  Travel  through  your  own  country — and  it  is  rather 
below  than  above  the  average — by  any  public  or  private  road. 
Compare  the  old  and  the  new  houses.  The  houses  built 
recently  are  better  every  way  than  those  built  before  the  war. 
I  do  not  speak  of  an  occasional  mansion  that  in  the  old  times 
lifted  itself  proudly  among  a  score  of  cabins,  but  of  the 
thousands  of  decent  farmhouses  and  comely  cottages  that  have 
been  built  in  the  last  ten  years.  I  know  scores  whose  new 
barns  are  better  than  their  old  residences.  Our  people  have 
better  furniture.  Good  mattresses  have  largely  driven  out  the 
old-time  feathers.  Cook  stoves,  sewing-machines,  with  all 
such  comforts  and  conveniences,  may  be  seen  in  a  dozen  homes 
to-day  where  you  could  hardly  have  found  them  in  one  in 
1860.  Lamps  that  make  reading  agreeable  have  driven  out 
tallow-dips,  by  whose  glimmering  no  eyes  could  long  read  and 
continue  to  see.  Better  taste  asserts  itself;  the  new  houses 
are  painted;  they  have  not  only  glass,  but  blinds.  There  is 
more  comfort  inside.  There  are  luxuries  where  once  there 
were  not  conveniences.  Carpets  are  getting  to  be  common 
among  the  middle  classes.  There  are  parlor  organs,  pianos, 
and  pictures  where  we  never  saw  them  before.  And  so  on,  to 
the  end  of  a  long  chapter. 

"Test  the  question  of  our  better  condition  by  the  receipts  of 
benevolent  institutions,  the  support  of  the  ministry,  the  build- 


10  Sketch  of  Bishop  Atticus  G.  Haygood 

ing,  improvement,  and  furnishing  of  churches,  and  we  have  the 
same  answer — our  people  are  better  off  now  than  in  1860. 

"In  reply  to  all  this  some  one  will  say,  'But  it  costs  more  to 
live  than  in  I860.'  I  answer,  'True  enough;  but  there  is 
more  to  live  for.' 

"Secondy,  the  social  and  civil  order  existing  in  the  Southern 
States  is  itself  wonderful,  and  an  occasion  of  profound  grati- 
tude. For  any  wrongs  that  have  been  done  in  our  section,  for 
any  acts  of  violence  on  any  pretext,  for  any  disobedience  to 
law,  I  have  not  one  word  of  defense.  Admitting,  for  argu- 
ment's sake,  all  that  the  bitterest  of  our  censors  have  ever  said 
upon  these  subjects,  I  still  say,  considering  what  were  the  con- 
ditions of  life  in  the  Southern  States  after  April,  1865,  the 
civil  and  social  order  that  exists  in  the  South  is  wonderful. 
Our  critics  and  censors  forget,  we  must  believe,  the  history  of 
other  countries.  They  have  never  comprehended  the  problem 
we  had  given  us  to  work  out  after  the  surrender.  Only  those 
who  lived  through  that  period  can  ever  understand  it.  Why 
has  not  this  whole  Southern  country  repeated  the  scenes  of 
Hayti  and  San  Domingo?  Not  the  repressive  power  of  a 
strong  government  only;  not  the  fear  of  the  stronger  race 
only ;  not  that  suggestions  have  been  lacking  from  fierce  and 
narrow  fanatics ;  but  chiefly  in  this,  the  conservative  power  of 
the  Protestant  religion,  which  had  taken  such  deep  root  in 
the  hearts  and  lives  of  our  people.  The  controlling  sentiment 
of  the  Southern  people,  in  city  and  hamlet,  in  camp  and  field, 
among  the  white  and  the  black,  has  been  religious. 

"Thirdly,  the  restoration  of  our  relations  to  the  General 
Government  should  excite  our  gratitude.  Possibly  some  do 
not  go  with  me  here.  Then  I  must  go  without  them;  but  I 
shall  not  lack  company,  and,  as  the  years  pass,  it  will  be  an 
ever-increasing  throng.  We  must  distinguish  between  a  party 
we  have  for  the  most  part  antagonized  and  the  government  it 
has  so  long  a  time  controlled.  Whatever  may  be  the  faults  of 
the  party  in  power,  or  of  the  party  out  of  power,  this  is, 
nevertheless,  so  far  as  I  know,  altogether  the  most  satisfactory 
and  desirable  government  in  the  world,  and  I  am  thankful  to 
God,  the  disposer  of  the  affairs  of  nations  and  of  men.  that 
our  States  are  again  in  relations  with  the  General  Government. 

"Should  we  be  surprised  or  discouraged  because  our  section 
does  not  control  the  government?  History,  if  not  reason, 
should  teach  us  better.     Is  there  a  parallel  to  our  history  since 


Sketch  of  Bishop  Atticus  G.  Haygood  11 

1860 — war,  bitter,  continued,  and  destructive;    defeat,  utter 
and   overwhelming,   and   all    followed   so    soon   by   so   great 
political  influence  and  consideration  as  we  now  enjoy?    When 
did  a  defeated  and  conquered  minority  ever  before,  in  the  short 
space  of  fifteen  years,  regain  such  power  and  influence  in  any 
age  or  nation?    And  this  is  the  more  wonderful  when  we  con- 
sider the   immeasurable   capacity    for   blundering   which    the 
leaders  of  the  dominant  party  in  our  section  have  manifested 
during  these  years  of  political  conflict.     And  it  is  the  more 
wonderful  still  when  we  consider  how  ready  the  dominant  part 
of  the  other  section  has  been  to  receive,  as  the  expression  of 
the  fixed  though  secret  sentiment  of  the  mass  of  the  Southern 
people,  the  wild  utterances  of  a  few  extreme  impracticables, 
who  have  never  forgotten  and  have  never  learned.     I  tell  you 
to-day,  the  sober-minded  people  who  had  read  history  did  not, 
m  1865.  expect  that  our  relations  with  the  General  Govern- 
ment would  be.  by  1880,  as  good  as  they  are.     But  they  would 
have  been  better  than  they  are  if  the  real  sentiment  of  the 
masses  on  both  sides  could  have  gotten  itself  fairly  expressed ; 
for  these  masses  wish  to  be  friends,  and  before  very  long  they 
will  sweep  from  their  way  those  w^ho  seek  to  hinder  them.    My 
congregation,  looked  at  on  all  sides  and  measured  bv  any  tests, 
It  IS  one  of  the  wonders  of  history  that  our  people  have,  in  so 
short  a  time  (fifteen  years  is  a  very  short  time  in  the  lifetime 
of  a  nation),  so  far  overcome  the  evil  effects  of  one  of  the 
most  bloody  and  desolating  and  exasperating  wars  ever  waged 
m  this  w^orld !    And  the  facts  speak  worlds  for  our  Constitu- 
tion,  for  our  fon-n  of  government,  and,  above  all,   for  our 
Protestant  religion— a  religion  which  will  yet  show  itself  to 
be  the  best  healer  of  national  wounds,  and  the  best  reconciler 
of  estranged  brethren. 

"Fourthly,  there  is  one  great  historic  fact  which  should,  in 
my  sober  judgment,  above  all  things,  excite  everywhere  in  the 
South  profound  gratitude  to  Almighty  God:  I  mean  the 
abolition  of  African  slavery. 

"If  I  speak  only  for  myself  (and  I  am  persuaded  that  I  do 
not),  then  be  it  so;  but  I,  for  one,  thank  God  that  there  is  no 
longer  slavery  in  these  United  States!  I  am  persuaded  that 
I  only  say  what  the  vast  majority  of  our  people  feel  and 
believe.  I  do  not  forget  the  better  characteristics  of  African 
slavery  as  it  existed  among  us  for  so  long  a  time  under  the 
sanction  of  national  law  and  under  the  protection  of  the  Con- 


12  Sketch  of  Bishop  Atticus  G.  Haygood 

stitution  of  the  United  States ;  I  do  not  forget  that  its  worst 
features  were  often  cruelly  exaggerated,  and  that  its  best  were 
unfairly  minified;  more  than  all,  I  do  not  forget  that,  in  the 
providence  of  God,  a  work  that  is  without  a  parallel  in  history 
was  done  on  the  Southern  plantations — a  work  that  was  begun 
by  such  men  as  Bishop  Capers,  of  South  Carolina,  Lovick 
Pierce  and  Bishop  Andrew,  of  Georgia,  and  by  men  like- 
minded  with  them — a  work  whose  expenses  were  met  by  the 
slaveholders  themselves — a  work  that  resulted  in  the  Christian- 
izing of  a  full  half  million  of  the  African  people,  who  became 
communicants  of  our  churches,  and  in  the  bettering  of  nearly 
the  whole  four  or  five  million  who  were  brought  largely  under 
the  redeeming  influence  of  our  holy  religion. 

"I  have  nothing  to  say  at  this  time  of  the  particular  'war 
measure'  that  brought  about  their  immediate  and  uncon- 
ditioned enfranchisement,  only  that  it  is  history,  and  that  it 
is  done  for  once  and  for  all.  I  am  not  called  on,  in  order  to 
justify  my  position,  to  approve  the  political  unwisdom  of 
suddenly  placing  the  ballot  in  the  hands  of  nearly  a  million  of 
unqualified  men — only  that,  since  it  is  done,  this  also  is  history 
that  we  of  the  South  should  accept,  and  that  our  fellow- 
citizens  of  the  North  should  never  disturb.  But  all  these 
things,  bad  as  they  may  have  been,  and  unfortunate  as  they 
may  yet  be,  are  only  incidental  to  the  one  great  historic  fact 
that  slavery  exists  no  more.  For  this  fact  I  devoutly  thank 
God  this  day !     And  on  many  accounts  : 

"1.  For  the  Negroes  themselves.  While  they  have  suffered 
and  will  suffer  many  things  in  their  struggle  for  existence,  I 
do,  nevertheless,  believe  that  in  the  long  run  it  is  best  for  them. 
How  soon  they  shall  realize  the  possibilities  of  their  new  rela- 
tions depends  largely,  perhaps  most,  on  themselves.  Much 
depends  on  those  who,  under  God,  set  them  free.  By  every 
token  this  whole  nation  should  undertake  the  problem  of  their 
education.  That  problem  will  have  to  be  worked  out  on  the 
basis  of  cooperation  ;  that  is,  they  must  be  helped  to  help  them- 
selves. To  make  their  education  an  absolute  gratuity  will  per- 
petuate many  of  the  misconceptions  and  weaknesses  of  charac- 
ter which  now  embarrass  and  hinder  their  progress.  Much, 
also,  depends  upon  the  Southern  white  people — their  sympathy, 
their  justice,  their  wise  and  helpful  cooperation.  This  we 
should  give  them,  not  reluctantly,  but  gladly,  for  their  good 
and  for  the  safety  of  all,  for  their  elevation,  and  for  the  glory 


Sketch  of  Bishop  Atticus  G.  Haygood  13 

of  God.     How  we  may  do  this  may  be  matter  for  discussion 
hereafter. 

"2.  I  am  grateful  that  slavery  no  longer  exists,  because  it 
is  better  for  the  white  people  of  the  South.  It  is  better  for 
our  industries  and  our  business,  as  proved  by  the  crops  that 
free  labor  makes.  But  by  eminence  it  is  better  for  our  social 
and  ethical  development.  We  will  now  begin  to  take  our  right 
place  among  both  the  conservative  and  aggressive  forces  of 
the  civilized  and  Christian  world. 

"3.  I  am  grateful  because  it  is  unspeakably  better  for  our 
children  and  children's  children.  It  is  better  for  them  in  a 
thousand  ways.  I  have  not  time  for  discussion  in  detail  now. 
But  this,  if  nothing  else,  proves  the  truth  of  my  position :  there 
are  more  white  children  at  work  in  the  South  to-day  than  ever 
before.  And  this  goes  far  to  account  for  the  six  million  bales 
of  cotton.  Our  children  are  growing  up  to  believe  that  idle- 
ness is  vagabondage.  One  other  thing  I  wish  to  say  before 
leaving  this  point.  We  hear  much  about  the  disadvantages 
to  our  children  of  leaving  them  among  several  million  of 
freedmen.  I  recognize  them  and  feel  them ;  but  I  would  rather 
leave  my  children  among  several  million  of  free  Negroes  than 
among  several  million  of  Negroes  in  slavery. 

''But,  leaving  out  of  view  at  this  time  all  discussion  of  the 
various  benefits  that  may  come  through  the  enfranchisement 
of  the  Negroes,  I  am  thankful  on  the  broad  and  unqualified 
ground  that  there  is  now  no  slavery  in  all  our  land. 

"Does  any  one  say  to  me  this  day :  'You  have  got  new  light ; 
you  have  changed  the  opinions  you  entertained  twenty  years 
ago'  ?  I  answer  humbly,  but  gratefully,  and  without  qualifica- 
tion: 'I  have  got  new  light.  I  do  now  believe  many  things 
that  I  did  not  believe  twenty  years  ago.  Moreover,  if  it 
please  God  to  spare  me  in  this  world  twenty  years  longer,  I 
hope  to  have,  on  many  difficult  problems,  more  new  light. 
I  expect,  if  I  see  the  dawn  of  the  year  1900,  to  believe  some 
things  that  I  now  reject,  and  to  reject  some  things  that  I  now 
believe.  And  I  will  not  be  alone.'  "  (Sermons  and  Speeches, 
p.  110  fol.) 


14  Sketch  of  Bishop  Atticus  G.  Haygood 


NEGRO  TRAITS 

"It  may  be  questioned  wliether  the  laboring  classes  of  any 
country  are  so  certain  of  employment  as  are  the  Negroes  of 
the  South  who  really  wish  to  work.  They  are  beginning  to 
appear  upon  the  tax  books  as  landowners.  Thus,  in  Georgia, 
according  to  the  report  of  the  Comptroller-General  for  1880 
(and  I  take  Georgia  only  because  the  figures  were  accessible 
to  me  and  I  do  not  wish  to  guess),  they  own,  of  'improved 
lands,'  586,664  acres — a  showing  most  creditable  to  them. 
And  of  these  Negro  landowners  this  may  be  said  with  cer- 
tainty :  they  are  more  satisfactory  as  neighbors  and  citizens 
than  are  those  who  do  not  own  land.  A  little  land  does  more 
to  elevate  him  as  a  citizen  than  even  the  wonder-working  ballot 
itself.  They  live,  most  of  them,  in  small  and  uncomfortable 
cabins.  But  this  gives  them  less  trouble  than  Northern  people 
may  suppose.  They  have  had  a  good  training  in  order  to 
contentment  with  small  things  ;  the  climate  favors  them  ;  most 
of  them  have  enough  to  eat,  and  in  winter  fuel  enough  to  keep 
them  wann.  They  will  spend  their  last  dime  for  food  or  fuel, 
and,  if  it  comes  to  the  pinch,  will  get  it  elsewise.  (Some  white 
men,  I  have  observed,  employ  similar  methods.)  The  Negro 
is  constitutionally  and  habitually  a  meat-eater ;  it  may  be  well 
questioned  whether  the  common  laborer  of  any  countr}-  has 
as  much  meat  to  eat  as  the  Southern  Negro.  A  fence  rarely 
survives  a  severe  winter  if  it  be  close  to  a  Negro  settlement  in 
a  town  or  village  where  wood  is  scarce.  The  average  Negro 
will  burn  his  own  fence  without  compunction  or  hesitation. 
I  have  a  Negro  neighbor  who  has  burned  his  own  fence  and 
part  of  mine  four  winters  in  succession.  Next  spring  he  and 
I  will  make  a  new  fence." 


"Few  of  them  are  skilled  workmen — the  best  mechanics 
among  them  learned  their  trades  when  they  were  slaves.  Free 
Southern  Negroes  and  Southern  white  boys  are  alike  in  one 
thing  at  least — they  are  impatient  of  apprenticeship.  This  is 
one  reason  why  the  South  is  so  far  behind  in  the  mechanic 
arts. 


Sketch  of  Bishop  Atticus  G.  Haygood  15 

"As  a  class  they  are  not  systematic  in  their  plans  and  labors; 
few  of  them  know  how  to  lay  by  for  a  'rainy  day.'  When 
they  were  slaves  they  had  no  motive  for  economy ;  when  old 
or  worn  out  their  masters  provided  for  them  as  no  great 
corporation  provides  for  its  disabled  servants.  The  exceptions 
to  this  statement  were  few — the  master  who  did  not  provide 
for  his  sick  or  disabled  Negroes  lost  caste.  Their  lack  of 
foresight  and  economy  may  be  well  explained  by  their  ante- 
cedents, some  of  them  antedating  their  coming  to  America." 


"As  a  class  they  are  obliging,  good-tempered,  and  unrevenge- 
ful.  Their  disposition  to  help  one  another  is  wonderful. 
They  have  many  relief  societies  that  help  in  sickness  or  other 
distress.  Their  treasurers  are  held  to  strict  accountability. 
Few  bank  directors  watch  cashiers  so  closely.  But  some 
Negroes  are  as  dishonest  and  mean  as  any  white  man,  and  now 
and  then  one  'absorbs'  the  funds  of  the  society.  But  they  do 
not  say,  'He  has  been  unfortunate ;  has  overdrawn ;  that  he 
is  a  defaulter.'  They  express  themselves  plainly;  they  say, 
'That  Nigger  is  a  thief.'  And  they  are  right.  (Whenever 
a  Negro  wishes  to  express  his  contempt  or  to  jeer  at  one  of 
his  fellows  he  pronounces  the  word  as  if  spelled  with  two 
'g's-')" 


"I  should  do  wrong  not  to  say  a  few  words  about  the 
religious  characteristics  of  the  Negroes  in  the  South.  No 
matter  what  one  may  believe  on  the  subject  of  religion  in 
general,  or  of  their  religion  in  particular,  no  man  who  would 
understand  them  and  their  relations  to  the  problem  of  our 
national  life  can  afford  to  overlook  their  religious  character. 
Their  notions  may  be  crude,  their  conceptions  of  truth  some- 
times grotesque  and  realistic  to  a  painful  degree,  their  religious 
development  may  show  many  imperfections — nevertheless, 
their  most  striking,  important,  and  formative  characteristic  is 
their  religion.  The  Negro's  church  is  the  center,  not  only  of 
his  religious,  but  of  his  social  life.  Their  religion  is  real  to 
them.  They  believe  the  Bible — every  line  and  every  word  of 
it.  To  them  God  is  a  reality.  So  are  heaven,  hell,  and  the 
judgment  day. 

"The  religion  of  the  Southern  Negro,  slave  or  free,  was  and 
is  a  divine  reality.     During  the  late  war  it   was  pure  and 


16  Sketch  of  Bishop  Atticus  G.  Haygood 

strong  enough  to  secure  peace  and  safety  to  women  and 
children  on  the  plantations  while  the  men  were  away  fighting 
under  a  flag  which  did  not  promise  freedom  to  them.  For  this 
the  just  and  good  hold  them  in  everlasting  and  grateful 
remembrance.  And  we  may  be  quite  sure  that  they  understood 
what  the  war  meant  in  its  relations  to  them. 

"They  may  not  have  outgrown  their  superstitions,  but  the 
school-house  and  the  Bible  will  do  for  them  what  they  have 
done  for  all  people — drive  out  the  evil  and  cruel  spirits  of 
superstition."     (Sermons  and  Speeches,  passim.) 


Sketch  of  Bishop  Atticus  G.  Haygood  17 

in 

EDUCATION 

"If  I  had  my  way,  and  could  command  the  means  to  make 
the  end  possible  in  our  schools,  there  should  be  no  diplomas 

that  did  not  certify  to  ability  to  do  some  work 
Opening  of  an  properly,  as  well  as  to  read  some  Greek 
Industrial  passably — ability    to    earn,    by   handwork    of 

School.  some  sort,  a  living,  as  well  as  to  solve  some 

sort  of  problem  with  difficulty.  There  are 
some  old  fogy  teachers  who  will  have  no  work-teaching  in 
their  schools.  Some  ridicule  such  teaching,  affirming  in  their 
ignorance  that  work-teaching  and  book-teaching  can  not  go  on 
together,  whereas  they  do  go  on  together.  There  are  some 
conductors  of  schools  for  Negro  youth  who  go  to  the  length 
of  this  absurdity.  They  do  not  seem  to  understand  that  the 
greater  the  educational  needs  of  any  people  the  greater  their 
need  of  not  only  being  taught  books  but  of  being  taught  to 
make  a  living,  and,  if  they  are  to  rise  in  the  scale  permanently, 
to  make  more  than  a  living.  Very  wisely  has  the  Board  of 
Trustees  of  the  John  F.  Slater  Fund  resolved  to  'prefer'  those 
schools  that  couple  'industrial  training'  with  head  and  heart 
training." 

"My  advice  is :  Do  in  this  college  the  sort  of  work  that  the 
people  who  send  to  it  most  need,  not  what  somebody  else  who 

does  not  send  to  it  needs.  Let  the  college 
Building  a  shape  its  plans  by  the  real  wants  of  its 

Christian  College,     people,  not  by  the  supposed  wants  of  some 

other  people.  It  will  take  good  sense  and 
courage  to  do  this,  more  than  the  managers  of  most  white  col- 
leges have.  The  temptation  will  be  to  try  to  do  just  what 
ought  not  to  be  done.  If  you  resist  the  temptation  you  will 
deserve  honor  for  your  good  sense  and  courage.  Suppose  this 
college  should  try  to  pattern  after  Yale  or  Harvard  or  Prince- 
ton. It  will  fail,  and  it  ought  to  fail,  for  it  will  be  trying  to 
do  to-day  what  may  be  well  enough  a  hundred  years  from 
to-day.  Yale  and  Harvard  are  more  than  one  hundred  years 
old,  and  their  patrons  have  been  sending  sons  and  daughters 
to  college  for  a  hundred  years.     I  have  known  schools  try  to 


18  Sketch  of  Bishop  Atticus  G.  Haygood 

teach  boys  and  girls  Greek  and  Latin  that  failed  to  teach  them 
English,  that  failed  to  teach  them  how  to  keep  accounts,  that 
failed  to  teach  them  how  to  make  a  living  and  to  be  good 
people.  Such  a  school  needs  teaching — common  sense  and 
honesty."     (Pleas  for  Progress,  p.  183. ) 

"In  seeking  to  better  the  religious  life  of  our  colored  brethren 
we  will  gratefully  employ  all  the  instrumentalities  that  God 

gives  us  to  use.  Schools,  more  and 
Advice  to  a  better,  will  help;    all  the  opportunities 

Theological  Seminary,     that  come  with  freedom  will  help.    But 

if  their  church  life  be  weak  or  corrupt, 
all  will  be  in  vain.  Accepting,  for  argument's  sake,  any  notion 
that  may  be  advanced  as  to  the  real  character  of  the  church 
life  of  the  colored  people  in  this  country — the  notion  of 
fanatics  who  think  it  well-nigh  perfect,  the  notion  of  other 
fanatics  who  see  no  good  in  it — this  remains  indisputably  true : 
In  any  nation.  Christian  or  heathen,  its  religion  is  its  control- 
ling force. 

"As  to  my  own  opinion — with  as  good  opportunities  as  most 
men  to  know  what  the  religious  life  of  the  colored  people  really 
is — I  say  unhesitatingly  that  his  religion  is  his  strongest  and 
best  characteristic.  All  there  is  of  hope  for  him  in  this 
country  will  rise  or  fall  with  the  healthy  development  or  the 
decay  of  his  religion.  Without  true  religion  pure  home  life 
is  as  impossible  to  the  Negro  as  it  is  to  the  white  man ;  with- 
out pure  home  life  Christian  civilization  is  inconceivable." 
(Pleas  for  Progress,  pp.  126,  155,  183.) 


Sketch  of  Bishop  Atticus  G.  Haygood  19 

IV 

EXTRACTS  FROM  ''OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK" 

9 oi'fi?  !^'  f '  "'^^  '^"  '"'  °'  '^^'^''^^  ^^'^'^  ^^^^'-oes  ^--e  in  the 
bouth  to  stay.     Common  sense,  in  considering  this  problem. 

T«  fi,  c  *!.  *^^"  "°^  ^^^""^^  ^  supernatural  intervention  to 
In  the  South  move  them  elsewhere.  Left  to  the  natural  con- 
to  May.  ditions  that  enter  into  such  questions,  there  is 
.  no  reason  to  expect  that  these  Americanized 
Atricans  will  remove  or  be  removed  from  the  regions  where 
we  now  find  the  great  mass  of  them.  If  such  a  not-to-be- 
expected  migration  should  occur,  still  leaving  them  within  the 
United  States,  the  problems  that  grow  out  of  their  presence  in 
this  country  must  be  worked  out  all  the  same.  Change  of 
place  can  no  more  eliminate  this  factor  in  our  national  equation 
than  it  can  change  the  past  history  of  these  people  in  the  United 
btates. 

'There  is  much  reason  to  believe  that  the  problem  can  be 
better  solved  without  a  change  of  locality.  The  South  is  the 
best  place  for  these  emancipated  Negroes,  and  the  people  of 
the  South  will  yet  prove  themselves  to  be,  of  all  people  in  the 
world,  the  fittest  to  deal  with  this  very  difficult  and  delicate 
race  problem.  What  we  want  is  not  a  change  of  blackboards, 
but  a  thorough  study  and  an  understanding  of  the  problem 
Itself;   also  the  right  spirit  all  round. 

"This,  I  think,  may  be  settled  down  upon:  these  Neo-roes 
ever  increasing,  will,  for  the  most  part,  stay  right  where"  they 
are,  in  the  South.  But  if  they  should  be.  as  is  most  unlikely 
diffused  with  something  like  equality  of  distribution  throuo-h- 
out  the  United  States,  the  problem  would  be  diffused,  that  is 
all,  and  with  much  increment  of  confusion  and  difficulty. 

'Tt  seems  very  clear— this  race  problem  is  likely  to  be  our 
problem  as  a  nation  always.  It  is  certainly,  at  this  time,  a 
prob  em  that  the  whole  people  should,  and  that  the  Southern 
people  must,  seriously  but  calmly  consider."     (p.  17.) 


20  Sketch  of  Bishop  Atticus  G.  Haygood 

"I  will  not  entangle  my  argument  with  the  question  of  the 
relative  capacity  of  the  white  and  black  races,  nor  will  I  specu- 
late about  the  African's  capacity  for 
The  Negro  Intellect,  'high  culture.'  My  argument  has  noth- 
ing to  do  with  these  questions ;  let  the 
schools  and  colleges  make  out  of  him  the  utmost  that  it  is  in 
him  to  make.  Then  let  the  world  measure  him  by  what  he 
does.  If  any  fear  that  he  will,  when  at  his  fullest  growth,  be 
too  great  a  man,  let  them  grow,  or  organize  an  'exodus,'  and 
find  a  place  where  they  will  be  free  from  his  overshadowing 
greatness.  My  argument  concerns  his  education  in  the  three 
'R's.'  If  anything  in  the  world  is  settled,  it  is  settled  that 
the  Negro  can  learn  to  read,  to  write,  and  to  'cipher.'  And 
he  learns  well  and  rapidly.  I  want  no  proof  beyond  what  I 
have  seen  with  my  own  eyes  and  heard  with  my  own  ears. 
He  can  learn  a  good  deal  more,  but  these  parts  of  knowledge 
he  must  learn  for  his  safety  and  ours.  These  are  the  keys ; 
give  them  to  him  and  let  him  unlock  all  the  doors  of  wisdom 
he  can.  This  is  fair;  it  is  wise;  it  is  necessary;  it  is 
right."     (p.  133.) 

"The  colored  schools  should  have  the  support,  countenance 
(there  is  much  in  the  word  countenance),  indorsement,  and 
cooperation  of  Southern  white  people.  Reason- 
How  Whites  able  and  good  people  must  feel  kindly  toward 
Can  Help.  schools  for  Negroes;  if  they  do  not,  they  are 
ignorant.  To  do  its  best  work  in  a  community 
a  colored  school  needs  more  than  money-help  and  the  mere 
toleration  that  allows  it  to  exist — it  needs  moral  and  social 
support.  How  this  is  to  be  afforded  must  be  determined  by 
sensible  people  on  the  merits  of  each  case. 

"Some  things  I  may  mention  as  illustrations  of  many 
methods  of  encouragement  and  help.  The  school  may  be 
visited  by  proper  persons  at  reasonable  hours.  The  pastor 
of  the  white  church  close  by  could  do  good  in  this  way.  Some 
of  them  do ;  all  of  us  might  and  ought.  Official  people  might 
encourage  the  school  by  an  occasional  visit,  as  the  mayor,  the 
village  squire,  the  teacher  of  the  white  school,  and  other  per- 
sons of  influence  and  local  consideration.  The  teacher  should 
be  treated  kindly  and  respectfully,  and  made  to  understand 
that  he  has  the  favor  and  support  of  all  good  people.  Any 
outrage  bv  'lewd  fellows  of  the  baser  sort'  should  be  taken  in 


Sketch  of  Bishop  Atticus  G.  Haygood  21 

hand  and  punished  promptly,  certainly,  and  with  such  severity 
as  the  law  provides  and  the  case  demands."     (p.  146.) 

"The  Negro  is  a  neighbor.  Perhaps  there  is  little  or  no 
intercourse  between  the  cabin  and  the  mansion,  or  between  the 
cabin  and  the  cottage,  or  even  between  two 
Intercourse,  cabins,  a  white  family  in  one  and  a  colored 
family  in  the  other.  I  do  think  there  is  more 
intercourse  betw^een  'mansion'  and  'cabin'  in  the  South  than 
between  'brown-stone  front'  and  'garret'  in  the  great  cities. 
But  the  Negro  is  a  neighbor  all  the  same,  and,  by  his  very 
existence  and  presence,  a  power  for  good  or  evil.  If  we  leave 
the  higher  considerations  of  duty,  and  find  the  lowest  place 
for  our  argument — the  self-interest,  the  mere  convenience  and 
comfort  of  the  dominant  race — it  is  important  that  this  Negro, 
this  humblest  member  of  the  community,  be  a  good  man,  a 
man  of  right  views,  sentiment,  habits,  and  associations.  It  is 
important  to  both  races  that  their  relations  be  not  only  friendly 
but  mutually  helpful  and  affectionate.  If  this  Negro  be  a  bad 
man,  with  false  views,  corrupt  sentiments,  vicious  habits,  and 
evil  associations,  he  is  a  constant  menace  to  peace  and  good 
order.  Neither  more  nor  less  a  menace  on  account  of  color, 
but  a  menace  on  account  of  his  character. 


"  'But,'  says  the  irrepressible  one,  be  he  Northern  or 
Southern,  'how  about  the  social  question  ?'  This  question  indi- 
cates a  sort  of  hysteria.  But  if  you  must  be  answered,  it  is 
easy :  Daniel  Martin  never  asks  anything  of  me  as  to  social 
life  that  I  am  not  willing  to  give.  I  respect  him  in  his  place; 
he  respects  me  in  my  place.  He  is  master  in  his  house  (except 
when  his  wife  gets  the  upperhand)  ;  I  am  master  in  mine  (all 
exceptions  understood ) .  No  test  that  brought  embarrassment 
to  me  or  mortification  to  him  ever  occurred,  or  ever  will. 
Wise  people  never  make  these  issues ;  they  do  not  come  up 
spontaneously — not  once  in  a  thousand  times. 

"There  never  was  a  subject  so  much  discussed  that  has  so 
little  in  it,  except,  it  may  be,  the  invention  of  perpetual  motion. 
It  gives  no  trouble  to  either  race  when  let  alone.  People  of 
good  sense,  good  breeding,  and  of  unmeddlesome  temper  do 
let  it  alone."     (pp.  183-188.) 


22  Sketch  of  Bishop  Atticus  G.  Haygood 

"Some  of  the  benefits  that  would  accrue  to  the  whole  people, 

to  the  state,  if  a  large  number  of  negro  families  should  become 

the  owners  of  their  own  farms,  I  sug- 

Negro  Proprietorship,     gest.     There  are  others  of  importance 

that    will    suggest    themselves    to    tlic 

reader — some,  no  doubt,  that  have  not  occurred  to  me. 

"Owning  land  tends  to  foster  the  virtues  that  make  a  people 
happy,  strong,  and  prosperous.  It  encourages  industry  and 
promotes  economy. _  It  furnishes  the  right  soil  for  all  those 
affections  and  sentiments  that  are  the  life  and  soul  of  homes. 
The  one-year  tenant  has  the  poorest  chance  to  make  a  home : 
the  long-lease  tenant  is  in  far  better  case;  the  landowner, 
although  of  only  a  very  small  'parcel  of  ground,'  is  in  the 
best  case  of  all.  The  best  homes  grow  out  of  ownership  of 
the  soil. 


"Owning  land  will,  in  most  respects,  at  least,  have  the  same 
effect  upon  the  Negro  that  it  has  upon  the  white  man.  It  will 
create  in  him  so  deep  a  personal  and  family  interest  in  honest 
and  capable  government  as  greatly  to  raise  his  character  as  a 
voter.  A  man  who  owns  a  farm,  be  it  ever  so  small,  is  not  so 
apt  to  sell  his  vote  for  a  dollar  or  a  dram  as  is  the  man  who 
owns  nothing  but  his  muscle.  Such  a  voter  begins  to  consider 
the  character  of  the  man  he  votes  for.  Bad  legislature  will,  he 
sees,  come  back  to  his  farm.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that 
owning  a  little  property,  especially  landed  property,  greatly 
sharpens  a  voter's  wits,  in  town  or  country,  in  choosing  rulers. 
In  this  one  instance,  at  least,  self-interest  serves  to  clarify  the 
judgment  and  to  support  the  conscience.  What  is  equally 
important,  the  man  who  feels  that  the  acre  he  works  is  his 
own  is  more  independent  in  his  choice  and  action.  We  may 
be  very  sure  that  one  hundred  Negroes  owning  little  farms, 
and  one  hundred  owning  nothing  are  very  different  forces 
in  society  and  government.  It  is  just  as  true  of  white 
men.     .     .     . 

"The  South  needs  a  large  number  of  Negro  fanners,  settled 
on  their  own  farms,  for  a  reason  that  will  some  day  become 
exigent;  w^e  need  them  as  a  grand  self-sustaining  and  efiicient 
moral  and  social  police  against  the  idle  and  vicious  of  their 
own  race.  The  landowning  Negro  is  the  sworn  foe  of 
'tramps.'      The   antagonism   is    as   natural   as   that   between 


Sketch  of  Bishop  Atticus  G.  Haygood  23 

shepherds  and  'sheep-kilhng  dogs.'  It  is  a  very  rare  thing 
that  a  desperado  belongs  to  a  family  settled  on  its  own 
land.     .     .     . 

"There  is.  I  believe,  no  condition  so  favorable  to  the  develop- 
ment of  patriotic  feeling  among  a  people  with  the  antecedents 
and  surroundings  of  Southern  Negroes  as  the  ownership  of 
land.  In  every  nation  patriotism  is  rooted  in  the  soil  and 
nourished  by  it."     (pp.  212-218.) 

"The  hope  of  the  African  race  in  this  country  is  largely  in 
its  pulpit.  The  schoolhouse  and  the  newspaper  have  not 
substituted  the  pulpit,  as  a  throne  of 
The  Negro  Preacher,  spiritual  power,  in  any  Christian  nation. 
I  do  not  believe  they  ever  will.  But  for 
this  race  the  pulpit  is  preeminently  the  teacher.  Here  they 
must  receive  their  best  counsels  and  their  divinest  inspiration. 
I  say  its  pulpit.  I  mean  this :  White  preachers  have  done 
much  and  ought  to  have  done  more ;  they  can  now  do  much 
and  ought  to  do  a  hundredfold  more  than  they  do;  but  the 
great  work  must  be  done  by  preachers  of  the  Negro  race. 
Tongues  and  ears  were  made  for  each  other;  in  each  race 
both  its  tongues  and  its  ears  have  characteristics  of  their  own. 
No  other  tongue  can  speak  to  a  Negro's  ear  like  a  Negro's 
tongue.  All  races  are  so ;  some  missionaries  have  found  this 
out.  In  every  mission  field  the  'native  ministry'  does  a  work 
that  no  other  can  do. 

"How  urgent  the  need  and  how  sacred  the  duty  of  preparing 
those  of  this  race  whom  God  calls  to  preach  to  their  people ! 
Heaven  bless  the  men  and  women  who  have  given  money  and 
personal  service  for  their  education !  Heaven  bless  their 
'schools  of  the  prophets' !  May  they  ever  be  under  the  wisest 
guidance  and  the  holiest  influences ! 

"Mistakes  were  inevitable;  some  unwholesome  influences 
have,  in  some  cases,  marred  the  good  w^ork.  This  should  not 
surprise  us.  But,  after  all,  never  was  money  better  spent  than 
in  founding  training-schools  for  a  native  African  ministry. 
Would  God  that  some  Southern  men  and  women  counted 
themselves  worthy  to  take  part  in  this  ministry  of  consecrated 
gold  and  holy  teaching!"     (p.  223.) 


24  Sketch  of  Bishop  Atticus  G.  Haygood 


OCCASIONAL  PAPERS  PUBLISHED  BY   THE   TRUSTEES  OF 
THE  JOHN  F.  SLATER  FUND 


1.  Documents  Relating  to  the  Origin  and  Work  of  the  Slater  Trustees. 

1894. 

2.  A  Brief  Memoir  of  the  Life  of  John  F.  Slater,  by  Rev.  S.  H.  Howe, 

D.  D.,  1894. 

3.  Education  of  the  Negroes  Since  1860,  by  J.  L.  M.  Curry,  LL.  D.,  1894. 

4.  Statistics  of  the  Negroes  in  the  United  States,  by  Henry  Gannett,  of 

the  United  States  Geological  Survey,  1894. 

5.  Difficulties,  Complications,  and  Limitations  Connected  with  the  Edu- 

cation of  the  Negro,  by  J.  L.  M.  Curry,  LL.  D.,  1895. 

6.  Occupations  of  the  Negroes,  by  Henry  Gannett,  of  the  United  States 

Geological  Survey,  1895. 

7.  The  Negroes  and  the  Atlanta  Exposition,  by  Alice  M.  Bacon,  of  the 

Hampton  Normal  and  Industrial  Institute,  Va.,  1896. 

8.  Report  of  the  Fifth  Tuskegee  Negro  Conference,  by  John  Quincy 

Johnson,  1896. 

9.  A  Report  Concerning  the  Colored  Women  of  the  South,  by  Mrs.  E.  C. 

Hobson  and  Mrs.  C.  E.  Hopkins,  1896. 

10.  A  Study  in  Black  and  White,  by  Daniel  C.  Oilman,  1897. 

11.  The  South  and  the  Negro,  by  Bishop  Charles  B.  Galloway,  of  the 

Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  1904. 

12.  Report  of  the  Society  of  the  Southern  Industrial  Classes,  Norfolk, 

Va.,  1907. 

13.  Report  on  Negro  Universities  in  the  South,  by  W.  T.  B.  Williams, 

1913. 

14.  County  Teacher  Training  Schools  for  Negroes,  1913. 

15.  Duplication  of  Schools  for  Negro  Youth,  by  W.  T.  B.  Wilhams,  1914. 

16.  Sketch  of  Bishop  Atticus  G.  Haygood,  by  Rev.  G.  B.  Winton,  D.  D., 

1915. 


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